How to Win at Winter Mornings

You’ve had a huge week at work. The kids woke up last night. You stayed up too late watching Netflix. Believe me I’ve heard it all!

I get it. When the mornings are dark and frosty, it’s so much harder than normal to make it out of bed. But there is no doubt that training before work is the THE best time to get it done and lose weight fast.

Why it’s best to exercise in the morning

It’s a great idea to exercise in the morning—otherwise work and family commitments can get in the way. And it’s all too common for your health to take a backseat to other demands on your time that crop up throughout the day.

What’s the best thing about training in the morning? It’s actually not the weight loss, or the body image benefits. It’s just that wonderful slow endorphin release you get for the rest of the day that simply makes you feel happy!

How to make sure you exercise in the morning

The good news is you don’t have to rely on sheer force of will to drag yourself from the doona’s warm embrace in the morning. If you want to lose stomach fat and to achieve your body goals, there are other ways. Implementing these three simple and life-changing hacks are things that all of us can do. And I promise they make getting up on a cold morning so much easier!

1. Organize the night before

This is dead-easy and an absolute game-changer. Pack your gym bag, lay out every single item of clothing you need to wear, and have your socks ready in your shoes. The trick here is to make the tasks necessary to get yourself to the gym so straightforward that you are literally half asleep until actually out the door. For a lot of us who aren’t ’morning people’, this can equate to an extra 15+ minutes of sleep. And we both know every minute is golden!

2. Put your alarm clock across the room

This is tough love at it’s best. Yes you can dive back under the covers after making the long cold trek across the room to silence your alarm, but you’re half way there now. And your bag is already packed. And look, your socks are sticking neatly out of your shoes just begging to be slipped on your cold feet.

3. Eliminate blue light

A huge factor in your capacity to face the freeze is whether or not you’ve had enough sleep. There are a multitude of reasons why you may or may not have gotten the recommended eight hours of sleep last night, but unfortunately a lot of them aren’t controllable (thanks a lot kids).

However, the blue light spectrum emitted by smartphones and tablets has been proven to interfere with your body’s capacity to shut down. Blue light is a powerful suppressant of melatonin, the key hormone in the regulation of our sleep cycles.

It’s hard to break the habit at first, but imposing a technology ban an hour before going to sleep will have a very positive impact on your quality of sleep. Bonus benefit – discovering books and magazines. Or even getting to know that person in bed beside you again!

Easy right? Just three simple things for a life-time of benefit. Now who will I see tomorrow morning!?